Portland Blog: This Week in Portland October 16 - 23, 2010

Hey, Portlanders! It's the time of the year to visit Portland pumpkins
patches, and
Halloween is just around the corner. We have a ton of fun Portland
Halloween Events this year, and we've started the list to make it easy for you
to find them. Visit our Portland
Halloween Events page, and be sure to let us know if we missed an
event. Or,
you can always add your own Halloween events directly to the
Portland Events Calendar.

In addition to Halloween, this season brings several harvest events.
And, as we head into
the holiday season, charity giving is on our mind. For example, today is
the Oregon Harvest Dinner benefiting the Oregon Food Bank. From OregonFoodBank.org:

Oregon Food Bank distributes food through a cooperative, statewide network of
partner agencies and programs throughout Oregon and Clark County, Wash.

OFB distributes food to 20 regional food banks, which, in turn, distribute
food to 935 local agencies and programs, such as food pantries, soup
kitchens and shelters and more. These local programs provide food directly
to people who are hungry in the form of boxes of food for people to take
home or prepared meals. The OFB Network serves an average of 240,000 hungry
people each month.

The Oregon Food Bank Network has a large geographic service area that covers
a diverse array of urban and rural communities. Each presents challenges and
opportunities for organizations that serve people with low incomes. Working
with our statewide network allows OFB to ensure efficient and equitable
distribution of food throughout Oregon and Clark County, Wash.

If you can't go to the Oregon Harvest Dinner, why not donate or volunteer for
the Oregon Food Bank?

Why should you support Oregon Food Bank? Here are some
facts that may surprise you.

Due to an unprecedented recession, demand for emergency food remains at
historic levels.

An average of 240,000 people eat meals from emergency
food boxes each month. Of those, 33 percent are children.

Oregon Food Bank fights hunger in our communities by distributing food
to partner agencies throughout Oregon and Clark County, Wash., and
addresses hunger's root causes through education, advocacy and community
engagement.

Featured Portland Events this Week

Here are the featured Portland events this week! Thanks to everyone for adding all the great Portland
events to the community events calendar. You can add your own Portland events directly to the events
calendar, here.
Just click "Add an Event" and fill in the details.

October
16, 2010 all day  Oregon
Food BankSaturday, Oct. 16, 2010 Slip on
your blue jeans, add some bling and do-si-do to "Down on the Farm,"
a fun-filled gala to celebrate Oregons harvest and to benefit Oregon Food
Bank

October
21, 2010 all day  VariousOne out of every four women will experience
domestic violence in her lifetime. Last year, nearly 20,000 requests for
emergency shelter went unmet in Oregon due to lack of space and resources

October
19, 2010 from 7pm to 8:30pm  Concordia
University at PortlandJames Davis, Metro
Naturalist, will discuss the wildlife, including eagles, otters, and beavers,
living in urban landscapes and how to observe them. This event is free...

October
16, 2010 from 11am to 3pm  Oregon
History MuseumExplore the culture of the
Mexican cowboy with a gallery talk, lively dancing, and a special paper flower
making art lesson. Two children admitted free with one paid adult.

October
16, 2010 from 1pm to 3pm  Pistils
NurseryOver the last few years, we have
been thrilled to witness an ever-growing interest in bee keeping here in
Portland. Pistils has developed a relationship with a seasoned, local bee
keeper...

October
16, 2010 from 7pm to 9pm  Echo
TheaterThe muses collide when Meehan
Production presents "Brightening Glance." This cross-cultural
percussive dance show about the cycling of the seasons was inspired by the
work of the iconic Irish poet...

October
16, 2010 from 7:30pm to 9:30pm  Arlene
Schnitzer Concert HallLast time Byron
Stripling came to town, Portland audiences raved and urged us to bring him
back. This time he'll transport you back to the famed Harlem Cotton Club of
the 1920s as we perform...

The Portland Photo of the Week

And, onto our weekly Portland photo winner: Owl by French Glen
submitted by Katherine
Barrington Maynard. Thanks to everyone for uploading
photos this week, drop by and visit the photo album for the
latest.

Did you
know you can upload photos directly to the website from your cell phone?
You can - just visit the photos upload page and make note of the email address
listed for sending photos via cell: put that address in your phone, and
then the next time you are out and about in Portland and see something photo
worthy, you can share it on the spot!

Our weekly photo contest winner receives a gift certificate to one of our
favorite new coffee spots in town, Coava Coffee Roasters. Locals
and coffee aficionados from all over have been saying that Coava is the best
coffee roaster in Portland right now. They were named one of the top ten
micro-roasters in America by Imbibe Magazine in the March 2010 issue. Their new
cafe is a "tasting room" for their roastery. Learn more about Coava
Coffee Roasters.

Portland Blog, Forum Chatter & More

Below are the discussions posted on the Portland forum and Portland blog this
month.

Want to add your own two cents to the
Portland blog?
Please do! But please remember to keep it real and community focused. Read
our terms
of use and don't spam the planet with self promoting material or weird stuff
as it will just get deleted. We have a zero spammer policy to keep the
site valuable and hassle free for our members. Thanks!

Greetings,
My wife and i moved here from chicago and since it's our first time having
a fireplace in our current living space, we'd like to know any
alternatives to firewood and where to purchase in Portland. Any ideas
would be great...thanks!

People Dealing With a Portland Foreclosure or Short Sale of Their Home

Dear Friend,

I have a favor to ask: I am working with many people in foreclosure
and am truly astonished and saddened by how many of the homeowners
know so little. They are freaked out, depressed, and just lost in the
whole system. This has to stop. It is ruining families and it
doesn't have to. If you know anyone or suspect that anyone you know
is struggling, please have them call me or send me their number and I will
call them. I don't care if they work my team or someone else. I
just want a chance to share with them what to expect in the process: what
their rights are; what their options are; and help them see that
they will be OK. Really, they will be OK.

October 2010 Portland Real Estate Market Report

By Ross Seligman

October 2010 Portland Oregon Real
Estate Report: What's Happening?

They are a comparison of September 2009 - September 2010 for all of
Multnomah County and are taken directly from the RMLS. What follows is
my own analysis of these statistics. For our purposes, I thought it best
to analyze Multnomah County as a whole. Each neighborhood, however, is a
little micro-universe and has its own market. Changing the parameters of
the zip codes, price variables, or time periods can lead to very
different results. This analysis is of all homes sold in all price
ranges in Multnomah County. If you have any questions about
specific zip codes, or any questions about the market in general, please
reply to this forum with those questions or feel free to contact me at: http://www.propertiesofportland.com.

Since Portland is a neighborhood city, you can now search by
"Irvington, Alberta, etc.". You can check it out by clicking here.

On to the report:
Here is a chart of all homes for sale, pending for sale, and sold in
Portland, Oregon for the last 15 months:

We are now in the strongest buyer's market in 15 months. In
September 2010, we see our second highest inventory in that time period
at 4163 homes on the market. This means that sellers have to make
sure they are doing all of the steps necessary to sell their home.
If you are a seller and have any questions about this, feel free
to contact me. In September 2010, 414 homes sold and 558
are pending for sale.

Yearly change from September 09
to September 10:

For Sale: 3573 in September 09, 4163 in September 10.
Inventory is Up 16.5%

Sold homes: 609 sold in September 09, 414 sold in September 10.
Sales are Down 32%.

Pending sales: 759 pending for sale in September 09, 558
pending for sale in
September 10. Pending sales are down 26.5%.

Chart for average price per square
footage:

In the past 15 months, the average price per square foot in Portland,
Oregon has been between $136 and $149. In September 2010, the
average price per square foot in Portland was $141.

Yearly change from September 09
to September 10:

Average price per square foot in September 09 was $147. In September 10
it is $141. This figure has dropped 3.6%.

Days on market and sold/list price %:

This chart is showing us two things. First, how many days on the market
that a home is spending, on average, before being sold. In all of
Multnomah County, in all price ranges, a home is taking, on average, 73
days to sell.

The other thing that this chart shows is what percentage of listing
price the home, on average, is selling at. This is a great indicator of
pressure on prices. In September 2010, sellers were getting,
on average, 91% of their original asking price.

Yearly change from September 09
to September 10:

Average time it takes to sell a home in September 09 was 63
days. In September 10, it is 73 days. An increase of time on
market of 15.9%.

The percentage of original listing price that was paid was 93% in September 09
and is 91% in September 10.

Average price for sale vs. average
price of sold:

The largest segment of home sales have been in the price range under
$400,000. You can see this reflected in the average price of a home that
has sold. In September 2010, this figure was $306,000.

Yearly change from September 09
to September 10:

The average price of a home listed in September 09 was
$393,000. In September 10, $353,000. This figure has decreased
by 10.2%.

The average price of a home sold in September 09 was $289,000.
In September 10 it was $306,000 This figure has increased
5.9%.

Months of inventory:

Months of inventory gives a timeline of how long it would take for all
of the current listings to sell. Anything above 4 months is considered a
buyers market. In September 2010, this figure was 10.1 months based
on closed sales. Portland is currently, on average, a strong buyer's
market.

This does NOT mean that it will take, on average, 10.1 months for your
home to sell. That number was 73 days, remember? It means that, if not a
single listing were to come on the market in Multnomah County from this
moment, it would take 10.1 months for all available homes to sell before
there would be nothing left.

Yearly change from September 09
to September 10:

The months of inventory in September 09 was 5.9 months. In September 10,
it is 10.1months. This figure has increased by 71.4%.

As I have said before, none of this information matters if you have a
particular neighborhood in mind since Portland neighborhoods are their
own micro-markets. If you have one in mind to buy or are selling your
home, please request a report for that neighborhood and I am happy to
post it on this blog or send it to you.

Hey people, I want to know what you think of these reports. Too many
stats? Just right? Something missing? Let me know so I can make these
more useful for you. What are your thoughts about real estate right now?
What do you think of the information in this report? Post to this blog
so we can discuss.

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That's it for now

We hope you enjoy reading our weekly Portland blog. Want to see more or less
of something? Let us know! Once again, thanks for being here and
making this Portland website such an asset to the community! If you
love this site as much as we do, tell your friends! Have a great
weekend!